(Ljubljana, February 15 2018) Today, the research team at the National Institute of Chemistry presented its latest scientific achievement, published in the Nature Communications.

Development of new insight into electrochemical performance of organic cathode materials was financially supported by the ARRS and Honda R&D Europe.

To summarize the achievement, please continue reading news article, published at the National Institute of Chemistry website:

Organic cathode materials can be used in various battery systems like lithium, sodium, magnesium batteries and can be prepared from low-cost and sustainable resources, which makes them one of the promising materials for future batteries. One of the pressing issues of contemporary research on the cathode materials was the lack of characterization techniques that would allow real-time monitoring of changes inside cathodes during electrochemical cycling. With the financing from the Honda R&D Europe and Slovenian Research agency and joint effort from two departments we developed a new method of probing changes inside the cathodes through IR spectroscopy.

Method was developed for explanation of poly (anthraquinonyl) sulfide polymer in Li and Mg batteries. In both systems we observed reduction of carbonyl bond during discharge of the battery. The results of IR measurements were confirmed through calculation of theoretical spectra and synthesis of model compounds. New method presents a powerful tool for research of new organic cathode materials and study of degradation processes inside cathodes. Confirmation of the discharge mechanism in Mg battery system opens new possibilities in research of Mg–organic batteries, where we are successfully cooperating with Honda R&D Europe in the last five years.

Source: National Institute of Chemistry

For more information please contact: Mrs Brigita Pirc, Public Relations; National Institute of Chemistry (telephone: +386 1 476 02 25 or email: brigita.pirc@ki.si).